Borrowing amount: $417,000 first mortgage and $132,000 equity line second mortgage.

Loan type: 30-year fixed.

Rate: 3.125 percent paying 0.750 percent points.

Backstory: Leithliter's clients had purchased their home in 2011 by paying all cash, part of which was a short-term loan from their parents that was to be paid back in a couple of years.

They were looking to do a cash-out refinance to be able to pay the loan back to the family. However, they ran into problems when a bank had them record the parent's loan onto title.

The clients were applying for a $550,000 loan. It is impossible to get more than $200,000 cash-out when doing a single loan for more than $417,000. If there was no lien recorded, then the cash-out amount would be for $550,000 and would not work. So the bank thought that if there was a $550,000 lien on the property, it would be a rate-term refinance and they would be able to do the entire loan for $550,000. However, since the lien was recorded recently, the bank had a policy that they would need to wait six months from the date it was recorded to do another loan.

The bank declined the loan.

A local escrow officer recommended the couple to Leithliter, who found that because the bank had advised them to record the parents' loan onto title, they would not be able to get a loan for more than $417,000.

Leithliter suggested doing a first mortgage of $417,000 and getting a second mortgage in the form of an equity line to get the total cash out needed.

Leithliter found a competitively priced lender. The equity line lender was on board, too.

Nearing the end of the loan process, the lender changed its policy and decided they needed to have evidence the clients had been making loan payments to the parents since they bought the property.

No payments had been made because the parents only wanted the entire amount paid back in a couple of years. Leithliter explained this, but the lender would not budge.

He was able to push the lender to re-underwrite the loan and get the loan documents out before the lock expired. He was also granted a free lock extension for a few days so the clients could close without having to pay additional fees.